About Mike Baird

To read more about the Manly Electorate click here.

Mike Baird was elected Member for Manly in the 2007 State Election. He was appointed to the front bench of the NSW Coalition and is Shadow Minister for Energy, Finance, Commerce and Youth Affairs.

Mike has been married to Kerryn for 17 years. They have three children under 11 years of age, Laura, Cate and Luke. Mike is 40 years of age.

Mike has lived in our Manly community for 13 years and his children attend local schools.

Having relied on the Harbord Baby Health Centre for his own children, Mike was actively involved in repainting the building and fundraising to purchase a new computer system.

After a near miss incident involving his daughter and a car, Mike established an informal child safety group with local parents to lobby Warringah Council for improved traffic management.

Mike contributes to the Manly-Manado campaign – a community partnership to take action against poverty – and assists the work of St Matthews Anglican Church, Manly.

Mike is a member of Queenscliff Surf Life Saving Club, Manly Rugby Club, Warringah Golf Club, a keen surfer at local beaches and a strong supporter of rugby.

Mike's career prior to politics 

Mike spent 18 years in wholesale banking before being elected to the New South Wales Parliament in 2007.

Mike began his career at the National Australia Bank as part of its Graduate Development Program. He was appointed Account Manager in Corporate Banking and Finance at 23 years of age and became one of the youngest managers the NAB had appointed in NSW.

Mike commenced at Deutsche Bank in 1994 and was promoted to Senior Manager two years later, with increased responsibility to pursue investment-banking opportunities. This included many project finance/equity underwriting style transactions for some of Australia’s largest companies.

Mike rejoined the NAB in 1997 following an approach to participate in the establishment of its Global Wholesale Bank.

Mike then moved to London to become a Corporate Finance Director, running the largest portfolio in London. He was also responsible for key European sectors including mining and energy, construction and engineering. During this time Mike was involved in several significant transactions, including the first Arranger/Agent role for the bank in London for Anglo American’s US$1bio acquisition of Shell Coal, and Lead Arranger for Rio Tinto’s US$3bio acquisition of North Mining Limited.

In 2000 Mike was promoted to the Head of Originations, UK and Europe, and his team’s focus on the Kangaroo bond market established the NAB as a number one in the corporate league tables for the first time.

Mike relocated to Australia the following year to run the HSBC Bank’s NSW Corporate Banking division, achieving significant growth during this role.

Mike was seconded to Hong Kong in 2004 to review HSBC’s e-commerce strategy for Commercial Banking globally. He was then appointed Head of Corporate Institutional Banking for HSBC Australia and New Zealand and managed a team of over 100 employees.

In 2006 Mike joined HSBC’s Global Talent Pool, selected as one of the bank’s key succession resources, being one of only 200 from a total of 260,000 employees.

Mike won preselection for the seat of Manly in 2006 and was elected a Member of the NSW Parliament in the March 2007 election.